math formulae in LaTeX

Inserting mathematical formulae into a wikipaces page

Inserting formulae and mathematical symbols into wikispaces pages can be tricky to start with.

Suppose you want to write about the square root of 144. One (clunky) method is to go into a word processor, such as Word and use the Equation Editor tool to get what you want. If you try cutting and pasting this into your wikipage, this, sadly, won't work. Maybe what you could try next is to take a screenshot of the Word page using printscreen and then crop this in a simple picture editor such as Paint. If you get what you're looking for and save it as a .gif file, you can then successfully insert this as a picture into your wikipage using the insert picture tool in the middle of the edit tollbar.

Here's the result:



There has to be a better way.

There is a better solution; it requires the use of a typesetting language called LaTeX (pronounced 'lay-tech'). Working in LaTeX renders mathematical typesetting rather better, and once you know what you're doing it is remarkably quick. Provided that you know the commands, you can enter mathematical symbols, algebra and various other objects by typing the code into the wikitext editor you can find in the edit dropdown menu.

LaTeX is based on a more general typesetting application called MiKTeX and to embed formulae here you'll need to get both of these installed on your computer. There's a comprehensive introduction to using LaTeX here and a useful installing LaTeX video too.

One useful way to see what you're doing in LaTeX is to use a WYSISWG compiler (remember, it's a computer language, not a program as such) and the recommendations seem to point to LyX and WinEdT.

Here the same bit of math is repeated but using LaTeX

$\sqrt {144}$

The help sections recommend using Texaide to insert LaTeX, but this product has been discontinued and the links now lead to... MathType. This supports insertion of formulae into wikispaces and will write the appropriate LaTeX code for you. But (1) go to your preferences>cut and copy preferences and select to put TeX data onto the clipboard and (2) paste it in wikitext editor mode and remove the junk from the front (3) don't forget to precede and follow it with [[math]] braces.

$\displaystyle \frac{{ - b \pm \sqrt {{b^2} - 4ac} }}{{2a}}$

LaTeX will deal with really complicated algebra with some ease:
$\displaystyle \tilde{f}(\omega)=\int_{-\infty}^{\infty} f(t) e^{-i\omega t}\,dt$

...but be *really* careful typing it out. Even cutting and pasting LaTeX code can cause problems:

Below is an example of how the formatting that is copied with the text can make it fail.
math
\tilde{f}(\omega)=\int_{-\infty}^{\infty} f(t) e^{-i\omega t}\,dt
math

Just one slipped symbol can render code unreadable to the compiler. Be especially careful with backslashes rather than forward slashes. Also, don't copy and paste too liberally as the formatting that is wrapped around the text can make it fail to read as math. Thanks to Debbie Guskin at the wikispaces helpdesk for helping me sort this.

Using the wikitext editor allows considerably more control over display and you don't get the problems above. To access this, use the down arrow next to the save button when you edit a page, and choose the wikitext option. Wikitext help is always available at the bottom of the text editor, but it's duplicated here anyhow.

http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Wiki/index.php/LaTeX:Commands

Another good source of advice on LaTeX code is http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/LaTex

You can test out your code at http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Resources/texer.php

I am indebted to Graham Wideman who has recently published a method to allow us to embed LaTex as inline equations: please see his guide to inline equations in wikispaces.